Goldenhand

Lirael lost a hand in the binding of Orannis. She now has a replacement of gilded steel and Charter Magic, and she carries a duty that comes with her new powers and that she may not refuse.

She travels, at some risk, back to the Clayr's Glacier, where she once worked as a Second Assistant Librarian. A young woman from the distant North reaches the Glacier at the same time, bringing a message from Lirael's mother, Arielle, who has been dead for years.

The message is a warning about the Witch with No Face. Neither the messenger's words nor Arielle's reasons explain who the Witch is or what she plans, and Lirael has to find out.

The threat to the Old Kingdom has to be stopped in two places: among the living, and in the cold river of Death. In that perilous realm the Dead hunger for life, and only an Abhorsen dares to walk there.

This fifth Old Kingdom novel takes place six months after Abhorsen. It comes after the novella Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, which appears in Across the Wall. It is fantasy, and the story moves between the Glacier, the wider kingdom and the realm of the dead.